The Celtic treasure contained 300 coins

Three years after its discovery, the public will apparently finally be able to see the Celtic treasure, which was found by a trio of metal detectorists in the New Forest in England. The hoard contained nearly 300 Celtic coins. The museum must raise £37,500 to buy the hoard.

The coins were discovered by a trio of metal detectorists near Southampton on the south coast of England. They planned everything carefully and went to the site purposefully after conducting research via Google Earth.

Initial examination and cataloguing of the treasure was carried out by experts from the British Museum. Historian Dan Snow said the find was "truly unique". The 269 gold and silver coins are believed to have been minted around 2,000 years ago. They depict horses, boars and people on a boat.

The coins were discovered by treasure hunting enthusiasts Alvin Robinson, Kit Layman and Garry Eveleigh from Lymington. Layman had only been at the hobby for six months when he and his friends discovered Celtic treasure. It's his biggest discovery yet.

"The secret of success is perseverance. A treasure like this is every detectorist's dream. When you pick up coins like this, you just think to yourself, until the last one was touched two thousand years ago," said Layman, who was thrilled with the coins.

The treasure made his friends happy, too. Eveleigh is more experienced with prospecting, having been going out into the field with a metal detector since the 1970s. "It's a really stunning find. When we pulled the coins out of the ground, they were so dirty. To see them now cleaned in the museum is absolutely thrilling," Eveleigh described his feelings.

The Lymington (Hampshire) Museum and Art Gallery, which showcases local history and art, has expressed an interest in the treasure. The museum is dedicated to local history and they have many photographs. They need the aforementioned £37,500 to purchase the treasure, which they are now collecting.

The museum has currently raised £30,000 but needs the remaining £7,500. Historian Snow recorded a podcast about the treasure from the museum to support this initiative.

"Finds like this tell us so much about our ancestors. The Celtic coins found are really important and rare, so they should stay in the place where they were discovered. Perhaps near the descendants of the men and women who owned the treasure," Snow believes.

Professor Tony King from the University of Winchester also commented on the discovery of the Celtic coins. "If the depot is kept together, it could reveal a lot about the area. About what was going on in the Iron Age. Finds like this just prove that people here lived a sophisticated lifestyle, trading across the channel to Gaul, fighting, trading and making offerings to the gods," King believes.

Sources: www.bbc.com